The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1887-02-24
VOL. 3o--NO.7
Precious Metals.

In the very heart of Wall street. says
the New York Post, are the United
States sub-treasury and the assay Office.
Here is the true heart of the financial
world; if it is irregular in its beating,
notice how quickly the speculative pulse
is affected. The sub-treasury deals with
money after it is coined, but the assay
Office takes the virgin gold and silver,
or these metals when thev are debased,
and determines their value. using the
government standard as basis.
The Office is intended to accommodate
the bullion interests of New York, and
it is used bv brokers. bankers. mer-
chants. and jewellers. Any one having
gold or silver which. when assayed,
will amount to 800 or over may de-
post it He will receive its value in
coin or in fine gold, or, if it is silver. in
fine silver bars. The gold and silver
bars have their weight stamped upon
them, and the former bears, under the
government seal, the value in gold coin
as well. The use of these bars has
saved the government heavy expense.
rs they have been largely employed in
the arts and manufactures, thus pre-
venting the melting down of gold. To
determine just how an exchange shall
be made a chip is taken from the metal
brought to be assayed. and it is melted
by itself and poured into molds. These
small samples are assayed, and by cal
culation the proportion of pure metal is
indicated.
To obtain the best results in the sep
arating department the deposits are so
combined that the gold granulations
shall have over two parts OF silver to
one of gold. care being taken that any
copper that may be present shall not
exceed 8 per cent of the mixture. About
%, 900 ounces can be- treated in four
kettles. khe acid is added 10 the gran
ulations in successive portions from 3
reservoir on floor above, into which
it is forced by air pressure from a re-
ceiving cylinder in the basement 1t is
boiled about five hours. then allowed to
cool, and afterward siphoned into silver
reducing tanks. four in number. The
removal of the silver in the acid solu-
ton leaves the gold in the dissolving
kettle; to this fresh acid is added. and
it is removed TO another kettle, acid be-
ing again added twice. The resulting
weak solutions of silver are siphoned
of, and after the third repetition of this
process gold results. which, when
melted. fiuxed, and cast into bars, is
997-1 900 TO 1881, 900 fine.
The solution of silver which is OBJ
tanned by the above process is after q
setting process boiled by the application
of steam about five hours in lead watts.
In these copper plates are plunged,
portion of the copper gradually re-
placing the silver in the solution. The
copper solution is then siphoned into
concentrating tanks, and the silver.
after being scraped from the copper
plates, is placed in a filter. where it is
washed, and. when melted. it is found
to be from 999 to 1894 thousandths fine.
The men, who are busily engaged
eight hours day in pouring molten
gold from crucibles into molds, are as
careless in their actions as if they were
handling iron. If it were possible for
any class of men 10 grow tired of the
glimmer and CLINT of gold. these men
must be the fortunate individuals. Some
one undoubtedly keeps 4 close watch
on them, but it is not apparent, and
they do not seem to be restricted in
their freedom because they work in the
precious metal. When they have finish
ed work they change their clothing and
go home. There has been but one
arrest among them IN years. A few
dollars worth of gold was found in the
pocket of a workman, but the grand jury
did not find against him. the inference be-
ing that some enemy had placed it there.